Add a New Word or Phrase with NaturallySpeaking
Adding a word tells NaturallySpeaking that you want to include something new to its vocabulary. The accompanying Word training also teaches NaturallySpeaking how you say a word.
If NaturallySpeaking is having trouble recognizing specific words, word training may be your solution. Word training is most helpful if the problem is that your pronunciation of a word is unique or not at all like its spelling. For example, in New York, Houston Street is pronounced Houseton. In Texas, it’s pronounced Hueston.
You can train words without going to the Accuracy Center, too. Just select a word in your document, and choose Vocabulary→Add New Word or Phrase and the same dialog box appears.
From the Accuracy Center click, Add a New Word or Phrase.
Up pops the Add Word or Phrase box, as shown.
Spell or type the word you want to add in the left prompt box.
In this example we will train the word prewash.
In the right prompt box, type or spell the spoken form of the word.
NaturallySpeaking uses a pronunciation guesser to figure out how most terms sound from the spelling. However, lots of jargon, acronyms, and other terms don’t conform to standard rules of English pronunciation. Sometimes you can type a spoken form that gives NaturallySpeaking something better to guess from.
But, whether you enter a written and spoken form or just a written form, if the pronunciation you’re going to use isn’t obvious from the spelling, you should train NaturallySpeaking in how you pronounce the word. That’s why you see a check box that lets you choose to train the pronunciation of the word or phrase. You can use the word training feature to make sure NaturallySpeaking recognizes your word or phrase.
For example, you may want NaturallySpeaking to write Boston and Maine Railroad when you speak the phrase B&M. Enter the written form and the spoken form
After you type in the word or phrase, click OK.
The Train Words dialog box displays in large type the spoken form of the term (or the written form if you haven’t entered a spoken form), as shown.
Speak the phrase into your microphone exactly as you always say it.
Click the Done button after you’ve spoken the term.
What if word training isn’t enough? Perhaps you speak your newly trained word, and NaturallySpeaking still gets it wrong. If two terms sound alike, NaturallySpeaking chooses one by looking at how you have used the term in the past, in context.
If you have recently added this term (say, in the Vocabulary Editor), NaturallySpeaking has little or no context for the term. You haven’t used it in a phrase, so NaturallySpeaking is more likely to choose the term with which it has more experience.
The solution is to dictate your new term in context and then correct NaturallySpeaking with Correct That when it chooses the wrong term. If you dictate the new word and correct NaturallySpeaking with the Correction dialog box, it will catch on and use the new term.